Exclusive: Google Ventures beefs up fund size to $300 million a year

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google will increase the cash it allocates to its venture-capital arm to up to $ 300 million a year from $ 200 million, catapulting Google Ventures into the top echelon of corporate venture-capital funds.Access to that sizeable checkbook means Google Ventures will be able to invest in more later-stage financing rounds, which...

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Death of the cassette tape much exaggerated

LONDON (Reuters) – The widening gap between the amount of data the world produces and our capacity to store it is giving a new lease of life to the humble cassette tape.Although consumers have abandoned the audio cassette in favor of the ubiquitous iPod, organizations with large amounts of data, from patient records to capacity-hungry video archives, have...

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Organ on a chip? Scientists test drugs on tiny, artificial lung

CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. researchers have begun testing drugs using a microchip lined with living cells that replicates many of the features of a human lung, a technology that may one day help improve drug testing and reduce researchers’ dependence on animal studies.In 2010, researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering...

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Euro growth forecast hits markets

7 November 2012 Last updated at 17:31 ETContinue reading the main story The European Commission has cut sharply its growth forecast for the eurozone, warning that the “difficult process of rebalancing will last for some time”.It now projects the bloc will narrowly avoid recession next year, growing by 0.1%, compared...

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Merkel says Germany, Britain must work together on EU

LONDON (Reuters) – Germany and Britain must cooperate to work round their differences on the European Union‘s long-term spending plans, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.“Despite differences that we have it is very important for me that the UK and Germany work together,” Merkel said through a translator before a meeting in London with Prime...

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Election night TV audience down from 2008: Nielsen data

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Tuesday’s presidential election may have been too close to call for weeks, but it didn’t pull in as many TV viewers as four years ago.More than 66.8 million Americans watched coverage of the 2012 elections during prime time on Tuesday, according to final Nielsen data on Wednesday. That’s down from the 71.5 million who tuned in to...

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Renowned special effects firm is “Star Wars” bonus for Disney

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “Star Wars” was the force behind Walt Disney’s $ 4 billion purchase of producer George Lucas’s Lucasfilm entertainment holdings. Not so far, far away is Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, his award-winning special effects shop that will likely save Disney millions of dollars in costs for its big-budget movies.ILM, started by Lucas...

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Human enhancements at work pose ethical dilemmas

LONDON (Reuters) – Retinal implants to help pilots see at night, stimulant drugs to keep surgeons alert and steady handed, cognitive enhancers to focus the minds of executives for a big speech or presentation.Medical and scientific advances are bringing human enhancements into work but with them, according to a report by British experts, come not only...

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Gender pay gap ‘could worsen’

6 November 2012 Last updated at 19:04 ETThe pay gap between men and women is at risk of widening for the first time on record, a leading pay equality campaign group warns. The Fawcett Society says that women still earn 14.9% less on average than men for the same job.But it says this gap could widen as public sector cuts...

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Officials: New mass graves found in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Up to 10 new mass graves have been discovered near the site of a July attack on a camp for displaced people, officials said Tuesday, amid allegations that initial casualty totals were downplayed to mask killings carried out by the national army.Rights groups claim summary executions were carried out by the Republican Forces...

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